More marrying as recession fades - celebrants

File photo / NZ Herald

Couples are rushing back to wedding chapels after putting off getting married during the recession.

Statistics New Zealand released provisional figures this week showing that after a quiet year, marriage numbers jumped to a three-year high for 2009's December quarter.

"It's been quite surprising because with the recession there was a bit of a downturn in marriages. [Now] an awful lot of celebrants are quite busy," said Celebrants Association president Wanda Brittain.

The recession had noticeably dampened couples' enthusiasm for marriage, she said.

"There was a panic. People were waiting. They had mortgages to pay and it was more important to pay those."

But renewed optimism in the economy was driving a resurgence, she said.

"People are feeling we are coming out of the recession ... and want to celebrate."

One couple had scheduled a marriage with her last year but had to postpone it when they realised they could not afford it - only to come back this year to finally tie the knot, Ms Brittain said.

Statistics New Zealand reports 5797 couples were married in the three months to December 2009, 353 more than during the same period the previous year, and the highest for that period since 2006.

This followed a lull during the previous six months, from April to September, when there were 10 per cent fewer marriages in 2009 than in 2008.

Celebrant Sheryl Mungall said a downturn in marriages had been particularly stark for overseas visitors, who all but disappeared from the New Zealand wedding scene at the middle of last year.

"It went very, very quiet. I thought I was going to have a quiet wedding season."

But this month turned out to be one of the busiest Ms Mungall has had in 14 years of working as a marriage celebrant.

She was swamped with both visiting and Kiwi couples wanting to get married - sometimes at very short notice, she said.

"It seems boys and girls still want to meet and get married, still want to find the dream woman or dream man and settle down, and have the house and the kids."

But the scale of wedding celebrations had changed, Ms Mungall said.

Couples were choosing to have simple, cheaper ceremonies - partly because parents were not paying for weddings as they used to "in the old days".

"I don't see many very lavish weddings. People are definitely price conscious."